To this day, Albuquerque hair stylist Roberto Vasquez gets emotional when he thinks about the pilot who saved his life and the lives of the other passengers. Vasquez recalled the incident 11 years after the 9/11 attacks.

"I wanted to thank him personally," Vasquez said.

Vasquez was on TWA Flight Number 3. It took off from JFK that day, destined for St. Louis. Vasquez saw an aircraft next to them as they approached the Twin Towers.

"So this really shiny object," he explained. "It would just like drop and disappear, and it was like out of control, down and up."

He later learned he was looking at United Airlines Flight 175, the Boeing 767 that hijackers crashed into the South Tower.

ABC news reported TWA Flight 3 got so close, New York Air Controllers told the pilot to take evasive action in order to avoid a collision. Vasquez demonstrated the action with his arms.

"He either went under or went to the side," he said. "All I know, is the plane tilted and we went to the side."

Other passengers told the ABC News that they looked out their window and saw the horrific scene at the Twin Towers.

Gen. David Petraeus pleaded guilty to federal charges Tuesday to end a probe into whether he provided classified information to his mistress when he was CIA director, according to a U.S. official briefed on the matter.